Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | 348 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Parting Really, Really Is Sweet Sorrow...
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 2007.10.18
Pete comes in to Don and announces that, without having had to crack his Deerfield yearbook, he's brought in an account. Don gives faint congratulations, but perks up when he hears the Clearasil name. As well he should, given that this is before Stridex came along. When Pete tells Don that his father-in-law is an executive there, Don opines that him giving Pete the account was generous. Pete: "He's interested in my future." Leave it to Pete to regard the situation that favorably. Personally, I think if Pete were revealed to be sterile, Trudy's dad would arrange for him to overdose on cough medicine. Don notes that Pete will probably get the bonus. Pete: "I got the bonus. And Cooper gave me some book by Ayn Rand." HA! So Bertram is in fact counting on Pete to be loyal to Don, to the point where he now sees the two of them as the future of SC. This isn't lost on Don, and he notes that Pete now has real investment in the company. Pete: "It matters to me that you're impressed." Really, Pete? Because you certainly played that one close to the vest all season. Don concedes that he is in fact impressed. Pete smiles: "Self-worth and status. You said it." He leaves, and Don's like, "For a taciturn guy, I need to shut up more."
Hey, Betty's at Dr. Wayne's! This should go well. She takes her usual place on the couch and says how nerve-wracking getting the family together is. "My mother didn't cook last year because she was so sick." She adds that now she's going to have to deal with Gloria, so apparently she does still exist. At least for the moment, but I think Francine might have put too good an idea to pass up in Betty's head. However, Betty says, she has things for which to be grateful, such as the therapy sessions, which have helped, despite the fact that Don doesn't think so. "Still, I can't help but think that I would be happy if my husband was faithful to me." Ooh, nice. I mean, this makes perfect sense. I think there have been a number of indications along the way that below the surface, Betty unconsciously suspected Don of infidelity, and her cries for his attention both conscious and unknowing are evidence of that. And Francine's revelation was the impetus for Betty's epiphany here, but it's the therapy sessions that really enabled her to get to the truth. But I love the touch that she's also discussing this because she thinks it might be relayed back to Don -- it's a power play, and it'll be fascinating to see the ramifications. Anyway, Dr. Wayne starts writing furiously as Betty talks about how her brother spanks his children, but Don has never laid a hand on the kids. "He's kind inside. But outside...it's all there in my face, every day. The hotel rooms, sometimes perfume, or worse." Leaving aside the fact that Don never actually conducted his assignations in hotel rooms, I think she's embellishing here to make it sound good for both Wayne and Don -- I'm not sure I believe that she's vividly recalling all this evidence now -- but regardless, she tells some truth as she says that Don doesn't know what family is -- he doesn't even have one. "It makes me sorry for him, when in fact I should be angry, very angry, you know? But I put up with it, like some ostrich." She notes that it's interesting, and sits up and fixes Wayne with a look, and unlike last time, it's appraising and calm, while Wayne just looks the tiniest bit intimidated by her newfound handle on the truth. She lies back down with a cigarette and says that when Don makes love to her, sometimes it's what she wants. "But sometimes it's obviously what someone else wants." She speculates that it could mean that she's not enough. "But maybe it's just him." That was such an amazing scene, I don't even know what more to say about it, and I don't envy Dr. Wayne having to capture everything that happened on that little tiny pad.